Report: Texans are getting frustrated with Clowney

Posted by Mike Florio on November 2, 2014, 10:13 AM EDT

AP

When Jadeveon Clowney emerged from South Carolina, the red flags were flying. And the Texans ignored them. Maybe they wish they hadn’t.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the Texans are getting “frustrated” with Clowney, who may miss Sunday’s game with an illness. Rapoport adds that the Texans want Clowney to “grow up” and be “more mature.”

Perhaps there’s more going on behind the scenes, but Clowney already has dealt with a lot. He had a sports hernia that required surgery in June — and he didn’t milk it at all during training camp. He tore a meniscus in his regular-season debut, potentially due to the franchise’s failure to provide the players with a sufficient field.

While it’s possible that he could play through his current illness (not enough about the illness is known to know whether he can), it seems odd that the Texans already would be frustrated with a guy who has had legitimate conditions and injuries. It’s even more odd that they’d admit it, since it’s not as if there wasn’t a risk that Clowney wouldn’t work as hard as he needs to in order to thrive at the NFL level.

His college coach questioned Clowney’s work ethic, for crying out loud. The warnings were there, and the Texans knew it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been dangling the pick before the draft. If they hadn’t asked for so much in trade, Clowney could have been someone else’s problem right now.

The problem could get worse if Clowney suspects that the team is leaking these concerns to the media company the team partially owns in order to get him to step up. While the report may provoke a response from Clowney, it may not be the one they’re hoping for.

Wow. Can’t say I’m surprised. Can’t believe all the Texans fans were downvoting everyone who called this guy out for being lazy and that the only plays he ever has made in his entire career were because he was unblocked.

What does work ethic have to do with any of this? The dude tore his meniscus. The proper remedy is surgery and time off. This team is fooling themselves by rushing back a speed rusher with a torn meniscus.

This guy has “bust” written all over him and the Texans were tripping over their own feet to make him the number one pick in the 2014 draft. He has barely seen the field. JJ Watt he is not. They may end up cutting him and their losses before too long. The gambled and have apparently lost.

Clowney work ethic, injuries? Said no one ever, the Texans are equally to blame since the stink was right there for them to step over, instead they trudged right into it. Dude had a poor ethic without $$, and now with money you expect this leopard to change lol.

But seriously…who didn’t see this coming? I would have taken either Barr or Khalil Mack. Either of those would have been good if they couldn’t dump the pick. They shouldn’t have asked so much for the pick. The dude had no work ethic in college…did they really think it would change when they gave him millions?

It is time for the players and their association to make a stand. Get separate medical professionals that are not hired/fired by the teams to treat, diagnose, and clear to play players. The pressure to play now at the expense of future years in terms of level of play, years in the league, health, and life is being compromised. Playing hurt and playing injured is not the same thing. Everyone is hurt, injuries need time to heal. Expand the rosters to 75 players or more. Put in a max salary cap of something like 10 mil/per season to compensate for the distribution of the funds. Find a compromise to pay for the largest expense which will be the health care and pension costs. Stop giving us lip service about player safety and actually do something about it.

The guy is a physical freak and has the potential to be an all time great. The fact is though, he started to peak in college (yes that one good year). Thanks to ESPN repeatedly playing the clip of him going unblocked and destroying the smallest RB in Michigan history (helmet flying), the hype machine took off flying. So much so his last year in college he seemed to buy into it too.

Then funny part of this is the Texans are saying they had to take him. No they didn’t! Red flags all over this guy but you let Internet GM’s (fans and media) force your hand? Give me a flipping break. Houston made their bed, now they will be forced to live with it for a while.

I would caution against taking anything that Rapaport says seriously. Specifically regarding the packers, Rapaport reported that Thompson was going to add “5 or 6 starters” through free agency. They added 2. Rapaport has also reported in the past players the packers supposedly “love” leading up to the draft and the pack not only passing on them in the first round, but also the second.

I watched Clowney in college and noticed that he took many plays off. He didn’t hustle most of the time, and he seemed entirely concerned with himself, and not his team. I voiced these concerns last year, and predicted he would be, and will be, out of pro football before 5 years are up. He just isn’t that good, and somehow a whole lot of people just couldn’t see that.

Not that I’m a Texans fan but did not just about everyone have this kid as the #1 pick overall? Now the Texans are stupid for picking him?
Looks like a job for Captain Hindsight!
By the way drafting Manziel first overall, if that is what you want, would have made them the laughingstock of the NFL.

He looked awesome in the preseason. Quick and strong, think he got to Matt Ryan a few times in one quarter. The guy had two surgeries and is ill. He will be fine, give the kid a break and quit taking your frustration of not having a QB out on him. You could have taken Bortles or Carr and didn’t, that’s on you Houston.

Ok I watched him thru highlights on the local news in high school, caught most of his college open practices, and saw every college game, he tore his knee due to the owners cheapness, flu like symptoms? He could be coming off the pain meds from the knee and suffering withdrawals. All his time off in the pros has been beyond legitimate issues, I’m sure the texans are upset their number one pick hasn’t been on the field much, but what the heck do they want? Should he have played thru the knee injury? If he’s got flu like symptoms should he be out there taking up a roster spot that someone else who could contribute better could use? The teams issues are a lot deeper than one pass rusher. Maybe their other big name line backer should focus on helping getting the team better instead of worrying about rookies insta gram accounts. Just a thought.

JJ Watt gets away with hitting the QB late at least 5 times per game. He is a great talent but I can’t be a fan of someone that cheats. I guess he’d have to be up against someone like Brady for the refs to call it.

don’t give up on the guy just yet. he’s a young kid who just has to grow up. this guy has always been the top athlete wherever he went with probably mediocre effort. he’s one of those guys born with athletic ability and skill so he never really had to work for it. now he has to realize his prior efforts won’t cut it in this league. give it time. we’re half a season in.

=You spelled CJ Mosley wrong. As for Clownshoes here, he had 3 sacks last year in college. 3. Why would you draft a guy first overall who had 3 sacks? It shows either a lack of production or effort either one should eliminate you from first round consideration.

J.D. Clowney is no bust. And this is coming from a GA fan. He caught some tough breaks but kid is a rookie. He has tons of time to grow and thrive. And thrive he will. The writer is just hating in a passive aggressive way. Can’t wait for the man to fail but he won’t.

The Texans ask an immature kid to “grow up”. As a parent I can tell you that if you have to use the term “Grow up”, you have already given up. This guy is 22 years old and he played half speed his senior year at USC.

The following is a list of people who are surprised that Clowney is “frustrating” the Texans with his antics:

I can’t wait for him to return and make all the none believers eat their words, like A LOT of you that commented on this post. If I’m sick w/ the Flu, I don’t want to do anything but stay in bed. He’s not the first NFL player to miss a game because of a illness. His teammate RG [Brandon Brooks] miss the Colts game because of a illness. Why wasn’t that talked about? Because he wasn’t Drafted #1 overall? Brian Cushing has soreness in his knees and they aren’t rushing him back. So why rush Clowney?

No doubt there is something going on behind the scenes. There were questions about him in college by sitting out so he didn’t get hurt and mess up his draft position. As for there Texans being stuck with him at the first pick, they didn’t have to draft him. For those saying they should’ve drafted Manziel, well he can’t get on the field for the Browns. The only person I feel bad for is Andre Johnson, the guy has waited out losing and now it’s back.

you can understand the teams frustration. It’s been one thing after another with this guy, Maybe the fact that his former coach spoke out about his work ethic is lingering in the back of Obriens mind. I watched very closely when clowney played a few downs the game prior to this one. I did not see anything special. he was getting blocked and never got close to the QB…I predict he will be a huge bust..one lazy immature bum…